Oil, Old Spice and Analytics with Neil Patel

July 28, 2010

Tony Hayward, BP’s bumbling CEO, stepped down this week. It was one more public step the energy company took to manage its tarnished reputation. Jessica, Susan and Virginia consider whether BP is successfully tempering damage to the brand following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. While hesitant to react early on, the company seems to have since become active in the many online channels where people are discussing the brand online. It remains to be seen if new executive management can turn such a black tide.

Neil Patel, Web analytics expert, co-founder of companies Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, and blogger at Quicksprout.com, then talks to Virginia about meaningful metrics and the BlueGlass LA conference. At the conference, Neil spoke about dangers of paying attention to misleading metrics and the importance of uncovering the real story behind the numbers. He also explains the close relationship between SEO, analytics and usability, and the value of testing and surveying users to improve a site. Neil also talks about the significance of attending conferences for networking opportunities, as well as the potential myth of success and passion.
Then Daerick, Susan and Virginia examine the Old Spice social media campaign that took place this month to see if there’s a disconnect between the popularity of the campaign and product sales. According to sales data provided by Old Spice, overall sales for the brand’s body wash products rose 27 percent in the last 6 months, 55 percent in the last three months, and 107 percent in the last month. A couponing campaign taking place at the same time makes it harder to determine the exact cause of the sales lift, however it’s likely that the two efforts worked together to bring Old Spice impressive sales growth.